Architecture as Tattoo: Meghan Marchie Interview

Architect and theorist Adolf Loos equated ornament with crime. In his 1908 essay “Ornament and Crime” (translated into English in 1913) Loos singled out tattoos (from New Guinea) as the prime example of degeneracy. Since Loos, much architectural theory has placed tattoos and building in diametrical opposition. A generation before Loos, the skin of a building took on fundamental significance. Gottfried Semper’s “The Four Elements of Architecture” (1851) outlined four primordial motives commensurate with four crafts: building a base (masonry), building a hearth (ceramics), building wall enclosure and roofing (carpentry), and walling (weaving). Semper, too, used anthropological examples, namely a Caribbean hut he saw at the London World’s Fair (the Crystal Palace). Unlike Loos, Semper saw the ornate membrane in a positive light and awakened the appreciation of weaving, which had been demoted as a craft since Vasari. More recently, topics of architectural surface have figured prominently in theoretical discussions. Cladding, weathering, skins and decorated sheds have resurfaced in the debates of Postmodernism.

Thinking of skins and architectural theory is what turned my attention to the tattoo worn by one of my students. Meghan Marchie is an Architectural Studies major at Connecticut College. Last summer, Meghan got a tattoo of a Frank Lloyd Wright window design. Architectural tattoos are a rarity, and Meghan was fully aware of those tensions. So, I decided to interview Meghan and document her aesthetic and intellectual choices. The interview is the second of a larger pedagogical project of collecting and presenting student narratives regarding art, architecture and modern life. The first interview, by Spencer Sutton, focused on the connections between art history and underground music.

Meghan discusses the tensions of a linear architectural design, “a cage,” against the curvature of the body, and how difficult it was to find a tattoo artist to even draw it. She speaks of her early inspirations in domestic architecture that stirred her towards Frank Lloyd Wright and architectural studies, as well as her curriculum at Connecticut College. Meghan’s architectural tattoo, moreover, highlights the communicative intricacies of the medium. Tattooing culture has witnessed a tremendous resurgence in the American mainstream. According to the Times Tattoo Topic, “It’s hard to look authentically rebellious or menacing these days, when even well-behaved businessmen wear earrings and ponytails and college students destined for quiet suburban lives have body piercings and tattoos." See also “Tattoos Gain even More Visibility,” New York Times (Sept. 24, 2008). Having emerged out of subculture, the tattoo phenomenon has become more interesting in its current prevalence. Meghan’s story enlightens us on the relationship between architecture, architectural education, lines and bodily expressions. What follows is a complete, unedited transcript of the interview. I thank Meghan for giving me permission to post it.

MEGHAN MARCHIE INTERVIEW

December 4, 2008, 4:30-5 pm.

Cummings 207, Connecticut College

New London, Conn.

KK This interview doesn’t have to be limited to your tattoo. Give me the context, your relationship to Frank Lloyd Wright. We can start with even how you discovered Frank Lloyd Wright.

MM Well, I knew I’d always been interested in architecture because, even as a child, I used to move all my furniture around in my room just, you know, on a whim. Really, a little kid, I’d move around this huge four poster iron bed and my mom would come upstairs next day and be like “who moved all this stuff?” And even from then I would be interested in drawing little floor plans and seeing the best way my room would look. And this was back in elementary school before I even really knew what that was. And then, they actually offered architecture courses in high school, which was really nice because a lot of high schools don’t really have that. So, the second I got into that I really really liked it. I had my teacher introduce me to Frank Lloyd Wright. We studied some of his homes and talked about Fallingwater, that kind of thing. So, I guess, this was the beginning of high school, but I just thought he was really cool. I thought his architecture was not just any old architecture, I thought it was actually hip, hip and cool.

KK Let me just ask you out of curiosity, what kind of architectural studies classes did you take in high school? Studio? History?

MM We used computers and did vector works, and drafting, and using CAD machines, and stuff like that, which is awesome because not many people have that opportunity. And it definitely made me completely interested. And I took it for three years, and basically by my third year I knew more about the program than my teacher did because he would come to me and ask me questions. I was young and using it more, and it got to the point where I was the local authority on how to do 3D drafting of a kitchen, or something. So, it got to a point where I was actually teaching my teacher and thought I really want to go somewhere with this. My mother works in the school system and keeps in touch with my old teachers and he, Mr. Bruss was his name, he was really excited that I decided to major in architecture, like “I knew, I knew that was going to happen.”

KK I’m curious also about the kind of place where you grew up. Was it a city, were you in an architectural environment that fed your interest, or was it always through books and reading?

MM I was lucky enough to move my Freshman year into a really, really, really nice suburb of New Jersey, and it’s a lot of old money [Summit, N.J.]. And so they had these beautiful old homes that were just humongous. Even today, my friend and I would do what we call real estate tours, literally, just drive around and look at the houses that we liked and point out why we liked them, or our friend lives there, that’s great. So I was really into residential architecture from the get go because I was surrounded by beautiful homes. Really, it’s an upper class neighborhood so everybody can afford to keep their houses in tip top shape.

KK Where those houses of historical value, of the 19th or early 20th century?

MM Some of them are. There’s some old historical houses in my town. There is this really really old club called Fortnightly Club, where, actually this summer, I worked with an interior designer and we did a wine cellar in there. So there is a bunch of historical houses in my town. I kept being drawn towards the more modern side. Even in architectural studies now, if I have a choice between doing something traditional and doing something modern, I like to do something that’s just as crazy as you can go.

KK In your mind, at what point in your life did that direction get formulated? I mean, why do you think you are attracted to the modern style? Is it because it’s more exciting, more creative?

MM I feel like you can do more with it. I definitely appreciate the beauty in an old building. Of course, that’s not going to be lost on me. But, I guess, upon reaching college, that is when I started getting into classes and reading books about modern architecture. And then I realized what a movement it was. Originally, I thought it was a hip thing to study. Then I actually got really into it, started getting really into Mies van der Rohe and that whole movement there, and I was in Gender and Architecture class at Connecticut College, and we were funded to go to Chicago. So our whole class went and stayed in a hostel on the Loop, and we got to see Mies van der Rohe houses, Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright. Upon actually being in that space, just completely changed my mind. Seeing it in a picture and then just walking up to the Farnsworth House, this beautiful glass thing, the expanse of glass and the structure of modern architecture, I find, it’s just, it moves me a little bit more.

KK So for you, it’s very much an aesthetic experience. I’m curious about your term “hip.” That you knew even in high school that there was something hip about this kind of thing. I’m curious to see whether you had other friends. Was there a circle of people that were kind of architecture-heads, architecture fanatics? Or were you on your own?

MM What is kind of funny is that my close friend in high school, he was in all the architecture classes with me, and we both ended up going to architecture school. Out of, literally, the entire class, it was just us two. I think we are the only ones that are pursuing architecture actually in my high school class. And even today, when we come back from breaks, we’ll talk about architecture because that’s what we’ve been doing together the entire time. So I definitely have. He is the one that comes on real estate drives with me. I mean, we have the interest and we feed each other. So I do have a friend to talk about it with. And, yeah, it’s really nice.

KK So, you’re pretty sure you’re going to architecture graduate school.

MM Yeah, I really want to go to architecture grad school, but I think I’m actually going to try to apply to the Peace Corps before that. Because, apparently, if you have a BA in architecture, you can do an urban development program for two years. And upon coming out of that, you can pretty much go wherever you want with that. I mean, you can really get into really good schools, so I kind of want to have that experience even though it’s really tough.

KK But it sounds like you already have international experiences. You had mentioned in class that you went to Vietnam. So it won’t be such a shock to you.

MM Yeah, I feel I’d be able to handle rats and cockroaches. I mean, I already did that for a couple of months and it got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. So, I figure that I can be OK with that kind of stuff.

KK Were those international journeys also motivated by architecture?

MM Yes, but I was there more doing sociological work. We were doing research on how the new economy is affecting migrant street vendors from the villages. But upon that, we traveled all over Vietnam and Cambodia and Singapore. So, I was able to see, because Vietnam is in this really interesting place where their economy is recently becoming this global thing so there is just a lot of growth. And you’re seeing these amazing amazing modern buildings going up and then when we go to the village, you just see people are still living in dirt huts. But even that architecture was really amazing. I saw some really cool tribal huts that are built like 20 feet off the ground to protect them from animals and stuff. I got to experience a really really different type of architecture. And I think a lot of people take the opportunity to go to Rome, go to Europe and see the sites you are supposed to see. But, I figure, I can do that at any point in my life, and being somewhere, and living in a third world country, and actually experiencing that type of architecture was completely mind changing.

KK So it sounds like you have an interest not only in high architecture but also in vernacular forms and social things.

MM My minor is psychology and, right now, I’m getting an independent study prepared that’s going to measure how people with certain personality types respond to certain spaces, so we’ll see how that goes.

KK Is it like a thesis?

MM Yeah, it’s a final integrative senior project, so it is integrating my two cores.

KK So, for you, the Peace Corps sound great. It’s something that people used to do all the time. I guess it’s a generational thing, but less and less …

MM Even now with the economy today, it’s getting really really hard to get in. Yeah, it used to be something like you would sign up and they’d send you anywhere. I think over 12,000 apply and under 3,000 get accepted. So, it’s really like applying to a really special school again.

KK You are a senior, right? Are you in the process of applying?

MM I’m going to start, I think, in January. It’s like a six month process, it’s pretty long. So, yeah, I’m putting that off until I have to.

KK Good. That gives me a sense of how you’ve built that interest. Let me just go back to Frank Lloyd Wright so that we can get to your tattoo also. Do you still feel that you have a special relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, as a kind of formative person?

MM I like what his buildings stand for. He really was a genius in putting things together and the experience of space. He really was first of his kind to build democratic buildings and that type of thing. I don’t think him as a character was the greatest guy ever. I mean, he definitely didn’t respect women. I’ve had conversations with other architecture majors about why I want to put something on my back from this guy who was a total misogynist and had a bunch of wives and would leave his family, but it’s more that I just like what he does.

KK Tell me how you decided a) to get a tattoo, b) to choose a Frank Lloyd Wright tattoo, and c) how you chose that particular design for a tattoo.

MM I actually knew I was going to get a tattoo at some point maybe because my mom was like “never get one.” And plus, I think the tattoo culture is great. And nowadays for so many people it’s a way to express your individuality.

KK Tell me what you like about the tattoo culture. Is it another form of design? It links the vernacular and design.

MM It’s interesting now, I wasn’t aware of it before. But now, if I have my tattoo out, you get in conversations with people who have tattoos, so they’ve been through the same experience and process. And it kind of makes you more keen to how people are expressing themselves on their body. I have some friends with some really weird things on their bodies that, at first, people looked at it and were like, “that’s gross,” but once someone explains it to you and how it has to do with their life and stuff, it is just really interesting because putting something on your body is really kind of a statement rather than just drawing something on a piece of paper. And it’s something you want to people to see, you want to be affiliated with it. I almost feel sometimes, now that it is winter and I can’t have my tattoo out, I almost kind of feel sort of naked that I don’t have it on. I feel like people don’t know I have this thing on my back that’s so important to me. So even though it’s winter, I try to make an effort to have a strap or something, so that I can have my tattoo out. I mean, I’ve got into really interesting conversations with people because it’s a really unique tattoo in that architecture is all about us, straight lines and structures and everything being precise and the second it’s put on skin, if I move my arm, the whole thing becomes organic and the shape changes. That’s what I love about it, that it goes from being something completely structured to just with the move of my arm it turns into something else. I was originally going to get a tattoo in Vietnam and what’s funny is that I was actually going to get a different architecture relief. I had been to a bunch of…, at Angkor and stuff, and they had these really cool etchings and I wanted to get an Angkor Wat etching on my back, but then I kind of thought about it and I was kind of torn whether I wanted to do something Frank Lloyd Wright-ish or something really old and a little more floral and fantastical. So I started doing a search for my favorite Frank Lloyd Wright images and, by the time I narrowed it down, I just felt there was so much more beauty in something that, I mean, it really does look like a square cage on my back--that’s what my mother says. But I think it’s so great that I can have these straight lines on my back that are really not that straight at all, at the same time.

KK You said some of your friends have tattoos. What is the repertoire of your friends’ tattoos? What kind of iconography have they chosen? Is it all over the place?

MM My tattoo, I had to ask a bunch of different tattoo artists to do it. Nobody wanted to do it because it’s all straight lines and it’s precise. Literally, if you don’t have it precise, the entire geometry of the thing is thrown off. So the guy who did my tattoo, after he finished, he was like “I’m never doing anything like this again,” and he was like “this is a really weird tattoo. You’re going to have people come up to you in the street and asking you about it because most tattoos aren’t straight lines.” And of course, I was “really? whatever,” and it’s totally true. I have a bunch of people with tattoos always come to me and ask me. “Wow! Who did your tattoo? It’s amazing that you have straight lines on your back.” And I just think it’s really awesome because I do have people come up to me and go “is that Frank Lloyd Wright on your back?” and there I get into these great intellectual conversations about architecture with people. It’s kind of a whole new way to express what I’m interested in ‘cause, I mean, some people have music lyrics on their arm and you can say, “hey, I know that song,” and talk about that or something like that. But it’s just kind of in your face, like a Frank Lloyd Wright image on your back and I've met some really, really cool people just because I have it on my back. I mean, people, strangers, have come up to me and been like, “I know that’s Frank Lloyd Wright, I love his Prairie Houses,” and, you know, we go on from there. It’s a whole different level of intellectual conversation really.

KK And how did you find the artist who would actually do your tattoo? Was it through word of mouth?

MM I actually went to San Diego because I had a friend living there, and that’s one of the better places to get tattoos done, apparently. I’m not much in the tattoo culture; I have one, and I’m not getting another one because I can’t beat the one that’s on my back, ever. Nothing can be better than what’s on my back right now. I’m not going to get another one. I basically had my image, which I had printed out and was just taking it around and everyone was just like, “no, I’m not going to that, I’d much rather do a flaming skull, and actually the tattoo artist that I ended up with, he was like, “hey, is that Frank Lloyd Wright?” and I was just like “Yes! Please do it. You know exactly who I am talking about.” So that made me a lot more comfortable, that he knew where I was coming from and, yeah, he took a picture of my tattoo and hung it up ‘cause it was one of the most original things he’s done.

KK How did you choose to put it on your back? Was that something you had to think through? Did you choose the piece first and then realize that the back was the best place for it to go, or did you choose the part of the body first and then choose the image?

MM I knew I wanted something on my back.

KK Why? So that you can hide it?

MM Well, I mean that of course, if I wanted to be .. I don’t want something on my arm or something you can see when I shake your hand. I mean, this is easily covered up and easily shown, if I want. I guess, hmmm. How did I decide? I originally wanted it really small, and right now it’s gigantic pretty much. The thing is that the detail is so intense that the tattoo artist was like, “All right. This is the smallest I can make it,” and then he showed me the size, and I was like “just do it. OK. Just do it, like, I’m not even going to think about it.”

KK Interesting, so there was a scale factor.

MM It was going to be really a lot smaller, but then, I mean, I’m really completely 100%, 110% happy with it. The fact that it’s big, I think, just makes it even more like a statement, and I knew I wanted a stained glass window pane by Frank Lloyd Wright because I think that is some of his most recognizable and dynamic work and so, I mean, I basically just went online and was googling images and looking at the houses that I liked the most and ended up finding this image that actually is supposed to represent a version of a modern city. So if you look at the tattoo from pretty far away, it actually looks like skyscrapers and I thought that was really cool.

KK So, have you make a pilgrimage to the original? Have you seen the original?

MM No, I haven’t seen the original.

KK Does it still exist?

MM I’m actually not sure if it exists anymore.

KK It might have been torn down.

MM Yeah, I probably should know that.

KK No, no, no, it’s not that important, but I thought it might be the kind of thing that you …

MM Yeah, that would be really cool, to like have a picture next to it or something, but, yeah, I’m not really sure if it exists anymore, but it’s on my back.

KK It’s not important, right?

MM Yeah.

KK And how big is it? Maybe you could send me a photo of it.

MM Yeah, I have a photo. I would say it’s like this big, maybe 6 x 10 roughly, maybe a little bigger than that. It’s pretty much my entire shoulder blade. Yeah, it’s a statement for sure. My mother was furious.

KK Now that you have the tattoo and we know how you made your decision, tell me about the response. You’ve told me about the positive response by people that come up and talk to you.

MM The only negative response I’ve gotten is from my mother.

KK Whom you told, right?

MM Yeah.

KK Did you consider hiding it from her?

MM I didn’t even consider it ‘cause it’s ... I was, like, “Look what I got! Hoo hooo.” I mean, she says it’s just like too big, it’s going be there forever, and I was, like, “that’s what I wanted.” I even actually came, and when I got back to school, my initial thing was to find all my architecture professors and show them my back and that’s exactly what I did and my advisor, van Slyck, who is right next door, was just like, “Wait! That is awesome. Wait, come here.” And calls over another professor. I have all these teachers looking at my back. Yeah, I mean, I got such a great response because I think it is really really original and nobody has that type of thing. Even people who don’t know what it is still think that it’s “stunning,” “beautiful” quote unquote. I get amazing compliments about it and it’s just my mother is the only one that doesn’t like it.

KK Well, is she more traditional?

MM She says that it’s going to affect my ability to get a job, that’s why. It’s like motherly concern.

KK Pragmatism.

MM Yeah, I understand where she’s coming from, but I was, like, “I can can hide it,” you know, “I didn’t get it on my face,” so.

KK Plus, it might actually get you an architecture job.

MM Yeah, it really could. I’ve had a lot of great conversations with architects, with students, with so many people.

KK I find it fascinating because of the two worlds you were describing earlier, you are interested in vernacular stuff and architecture. I think of tattoos as something that is more vernacular culture, popular culture. You know. I guess anthropologists study it in non-western civilizations that use tattoos extensively. I mean, to tattoo yourself is part of that anthropological interest in transforming your own body as a work of art, which is very different from the Modernist architectural ideas of pure form, purity, abstract beauty which is perfect. In that sense it is kind of amazing and very unique. I haven’t heard of anyone that has an architectural tattoo.

MM That has straight lines as a tattoo.

KK It’s not the obvious thing you think of. It’s not generic.

MM Right, I want, like, a heart on my back or something. I know that it definitely is more popular culture now because thinking back to even when I was back in high school, in older kids, like, it was something really bizarre when someone came back with a tattoo and now, when I think of my groups of friends and people that I know, I would confidently say that 75%-85% have a tattoo now.

KK It’s a huge revival.

MM It really is and it’s just a new way to express who you are.

KK Especially in some places. My direct experience is in Philadelphia, especially in certain neighborhoods like Northern Liberties or West Philadelphia, everybody has one. It’s an interesting phenomenon in its own right as a way of making underground connections and creating a visual culture that’s not academic.

MM There definitely is a tattoo culture. I felt very different about it, and then, when I got my tattoo, I actually felt I was part of this special group, and it’s, like, a whole new world has been opened up with this tattoo, with this one tattoo on my back,

KK If you think of the tattoo historically, it’s something that sailors got, Vietnam veterans got, it totally doesn’t have the hip associations that it has now. There is a theory of subculture (Dick Hebdige) that argues that you choose something that is perhaps of your parents’ generation, you appropriate it, and then you use it in a context that is so different, that you make it your own, and it doesn’t carry the connotations of the previous generation. As a result, your mother probably had the associations of the earlier generation.

MM Oh, definitely.

KK Of being kind of … opium den and sailors, getting drunk and getting a tattoo that you don’t remember.

MM I feel that it’s definitely a cultural thing. When I was talking to my friends in Vietnam about getting a tattoo…

KK Oh, yeah. Do the Vietnamese do a lot of bodily ornamentation?

MM No, no. Hair, I think is pretty much the most manipulated thing. But very very few people have tattoos and then if people have tattoos, it’s a big deal. One kid in my group had a tattoo in his arm and I remember my Vietnamese friends were just like “Wow! That’s crazy. I can’t believe you would do that to your own skin,” like it was just like a really miraculous thing to have. And a bunch of them, especially because I was a girl, thought that I was being crazy for trying to do that on my skin. It’s definitely cultural.

KK There is the trend of the Chinese character tattoos. It’s a kind of Orientalism that you see in tattoo culture.

MM But the thing is that in that culture they would never, they would never do that, so it’s totally different.

KK I’ll ask you one final question. Do you have an opinion about people that have tattoos in other parts of their bodies? Do you think it’s intentional to put tattoos on their necks? You said that you didn’t want your to be always visible. Do you look at other people that have tattoos and look at them as manipulating you, but placing them in particular places?

MM I don’t know because sometimes I actually wish that it was in a place that was visible, I mean, as I’d said before, I’m sometimes mad that I have to cover it up. I almost wish I could just get the same exact thing on my arm so I can have it out all the time. But I have a bunch of friends that have some really really obvious tattoos, like on their collar bone, on the back of the neck, and a lot of people do it on the bottom of the forearm, that’s a really really visible area and I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. I just think it’s their choice to put it wherever they want, it’s their body, I mean all power to you.

KK OK. I was just curious about how you situate yourself within tattoo culture in general. Or even if you care about organizations like the Suicide Girls. Have you heard of the Suicide Girls?

MM Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, that's just over the top

KK So, you wouldn’t go that far.

MM Oh, my gosh. They, like, pierce their faces. I mean, I have a nose piercing, I’m OK with piercing, but I’d definitely draw a line and I do think that people who have sleeves, that their entire arm is covered, my uncle is like that, and I remember, when I was little, I always thought that was really cool.

KK Oh, tell me about your uncle.

MM He’s a very crazy man. He, like, plays guitar. He was the fun uncle. I think he got his nipples pierced, I think when he turned 40, or something. But he was the uncle with the tattoo and I always remember telling my mom that that was great, and she was always, “No, don’t copy uncle Danny, that’s not a good thing, you don’t want to do that.”

KK Is he her brother?

MM Yeah, her brother.

KK That’s interesting. So, you had some kind of early-on exposure.

MM So, like, I definitely knew that my uncle was a big tattoo guy. And when I got my tattoo, I called him up and was like “Yeah, I got my first tattoo.” He was really excited for me. “Yeah, c’mon over, I must see it. It’s really great.” So, actually, my uncle’s son all of a sudden got his first tattoo. It’s kind of like tattoo culture in uncle’s house. It’s really funny because the second my grandmother comes, everybody covers it up. My grandmother doesn’t even know about her son’s numerous tattoos. He’s kept them hidden probably for 30 years, which is pretty impressive. But he still hides them, which shows something about fear of my grandmother.

KK Well, that’s great. This is all really interesting, the various lines of connection between architecture and design.

MM I hope that was helpful.

House Stories: Flipping the Grandparents' House

House Stories is a collection of personal narratives, a teaching experiment in History of Domestic Architecture (Wesleyan ARTS 637). See Introduction, and Table of Contents.

FLIPPING THE GRANDPARENTS' HOUSE

By Matt Strekel

Growing up, there was nothing remarkable about my grandparent’s house in Colchester, CT. They had moved there in 1981 just before I was born from South Windsor, CT. It was a simple house. A raised ranch, built in the late 1970’s, with plans and materials from a Sears store. Mint green vinyl siding clad the house, white vinyl faux-shutters on either side of each window. Nothing, I promise, remarkable about it. The house sits on a little less than four acres, set back far from route 16. My grandmother was passionate about birds and other wildlife. Heading down the driveway always meant seeing deer, fox, and many birds. There were purple martin birdhouses in the front yard, a bat house, and around the back, more birdfeeders and suet cages than you could count.

The inside of the house was certainly remarkable, but not in a good way. My grandparents had owned a travel agency in Colchester after their retirement, and they had traveled all over the world. As part of their travels, my grandmother would bring home wallpaper from Japan and Egypt, and fabric from Panama and Chile. Each wall in the entire house was covered in a different pattern, but brought together through a common color. My grandfather laid the carpet by himself, which means that the floors creaked, and little padding was left between the thin carpet and plywood floor.
My grandmother passed away on April 4, 2004 at 4:04 a.m. (should would have really gotten a thrill about passing away at a date and time that was all 4’s). My grandfather lived for a few years without her, but despite his tough exterior, was very sad and alone without her. Nearly seventy years of marriage is hard to just forget about, and it was hard for him to begin living on his own.

On a Sunday in August 2007, my brother, uncle, and I went to take my grandfather to lunch. It had become a ritual to take him to, what for him, was an early dinner once a month. When my brother and I arrived, my uncle was in the garden, picking through cucumbers and tomatoes that were ripe. The door to the house was locked, which we assumed meant that gramps was in the shower. Not unusual for him to lock the front door until he was ready to go. After about half an hour in the garden, and no sign of my grandfather, we entered the house through the garage and up through the basement. My brother walked up the stairs first, and upon reaching the top, found my grandfather dead on the kitchen floor. He had passed away while washing the dishes, sponge still in hand. I tell you this story not because of my grandparents or to relive fond memories, but about what role that house played for me after his death.

At the same time that we were dealing with his death, I was going through my own tribulation. I was divorcing from my ex-wife, and the opportunity presented itself to move in to my grandparent’s home to “flip it” before we sold it as part of his estate. I had extensive experience flipping entire homes in the Boston area, and it seemed to be a great time to do it. My grandfather was a tough and hard man, and there were few times when his true emotions for both his sons and his grandsons would show through. But we knew that he loved us. Flipping this home was my way of honoring his memory and doing the best that I could to make him proud. One last tribute I suppose.

About twenty-five years in the same house meant that they had accumulated lots of possessions. I was responsible for going through everything that had belonged to them. It should also be noted that I was not yet working at Wesleyan, and flipping this house was my full-time job. I spent a month, full time, going through their life. Slowly but surely things went in to boxes, off with relatives, or in to the basement to be sold at an estate sale. After moving their life in to boxes and selling it off, it was time to start on the house. Peeling wallpaper that had traveled halfway around the world and then painting the walls. For me, it was a job. For them, it was a memory whenever they looked at those God-awful patterns. As I spent nearly 16 hours a day, 6 days a week working on this house, there was lots of time for me to think about them. About growing up with them, spending nights in that house when my parents were away, dinners, Christmas Eve’s, and more. I have always believed that there is little use in associating a person or a memory with a physical object, and that the memory of that person is inside you, not the thing. For me, it was my way of saying goodbye, saying I loved them, and saying that they were wonderful people by fixing up this house. Room by room, I tore off wallpaper, painted, pulled up carpet, laid new carpet, replaced light fixtures and electrical outlets, installed tile and new plumbing, hung new cabinets, and brought in new appliances.

This house was more than a piece of real estate. It was part of my family, held many memories, and was my quiet way of honoring my grandparents. Shortly after finishing my work in the house, I started working at Wesleyan. I lived there for a while after I started working at Wes, while the house was on the market. We sold the house in an awful market; for $80,000 more than had we not flipped the house. I have no doubt that my grandparents were with me the entire time, checking in on my work, encouraging me, and making sure that I was safe and that we got the best price for their home. It was not always easy, but for me now and always, there will be something remarkable about that house.

PaK and Sol: Greek Hip Hop Revolution

From a young age, my godson Patroklos showed proclivities towards rap and hip hop. But nothing has prepared me for the release of a masterful full-length CD released a few days ago with his partner in hip hop Solmeister. The LP is called Απ' την καλή και απ' την ανάποδη (From the Good Side and the Bad Side) and was produced by DJALX at 396 μοίρες/Rainlab Studios in Athens. It can be downloaded here. This is a tremendous accomplishment from a 14-year old.

Half of the songs are written by Sol, and have a romantic bend. The other half, written by PaK, present a sobering portrait of contemporary Greek life, full of honesty, nostalgia and anger. Hip hop truly has no national boundaries. Although influenced by American sources, the songs are written in Greek, present distinctive Greek realities, but they also represent the pains of migration. PaK has recently moved to Germany experiencing the contradictions of personal geography and history at an early age. His relationship to the Greek hip hop scene are mitigated by a new distance.

I have only started to listen to the album and I'll refrain from individual comments. In future postings, I hope to provide some aid (esp. for the non-Greek speakers) on a song-by-song basis. For earlier work, see Sol's and Pak's ΑΠΑΧΑ ΓΙΑΟΥΡΤΙΑ (Nonfat Yogurts) here.

From Town to Country: The Archaeology of Modern Greek Landscapes

There are two colloquia that I have been working on this year. Since I have already posted the details of the first one, First Out: Late Levels at Early Sites, I should also post details for the second, co-organized with Effie Athanassopoulos. The Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) conference, which takes places every two years, will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have never attended the MGSA meetings, and this is the first time the Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology in Greece AIA Interest Group has submitted a panel. On March 21, we learned that our panel was accepted. Congratulations to all the wonderful contributors and their papers.

Modern Greek Studies Association Annual Symposium 2009

October 15-17, Vancouver, Canada

From Town to Country: The Archaeology of Modern Greek Landscapes

Organizers: Kostis Kourelis (Connecticut College) & Effie Athanassopoulos (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Respondent: Susan Buck Sutton (Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis)

Since the birth of the nation-state, the identity of Modern Greece has been defined by its relationship to antiquity. The discipline of archaeology has, thus, played a central role in the construction of Greece, but only in so far as it concerns ancient periods (archaia). For Greece, the archaeology of the recent past is an etymological contradiction. Material culture dating to after 1850 is considered non-archaeological; it can be exported and traded freely. Archaeological studies on 19th- and 20th-century Greece are greatly lacking, leaving a huge disciplinary gap with Historical Archaeology, a discipline that flourishes in the United States.

This panel brings together recent work applying archaeological perspectives to the material culture of Modern Greece spanning a spectrum of ecological milieus from the metropolis, to the small town, the village, the monastery and the rural landscape. The theme that connects the individual papers is that of “landscape” approached through the lens of archaeology. Landscape as a concept refers to the external world mediated through subjective human experience. In archaeology, approaches to landscape have changed drastically over time, from economic and ecological perspectives of the 1960s to more recent post-modern views that focus on the social and symbolic construction of landscapes. In Greece, the field of landscape archaeology has grown out of the tradition of archaeological regional surveys, introduced by American scholars during the 1950s.

The individual papers offer diverse perspectives and examine a wide variety of landscapes in the 19th and 20th century. The settings range from the urban space of 19th century Athens to the town of Corinth, to rural space in the upland basins of Corinthia, to monastic space in Mount Menoikeion in northern Greece, and to landscape features such as Mt. Pentadaktylos in Cyprus. Each paper applies a different methodological tactic. Some revisit older historical records, others collect new data or re-conceptualize physical relationships. Collectively, they represent the richness of a growing field. Susan Buck Sutton, who pioneered the study of the Modern Greek countryside and single-handedly developed the discipline of ethno-archaeology, has agreed to serve as the panel’s respondent.

The panel is sponsored by the Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology in Greece Interest Group of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). The Group consists of AIA members with an interest in the archaeology of post-classical Greece, and in promoting its understanding through various programs and publications.

Athens in the 19th Century: Archaeological Landscapes and Competing Pasts

Effie Athanassopoulos (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

This paper examines the changing archaeological landscape of Athens in the post-liberation phase, in the decades following the establishment of the Modern Greek state in the 1830s. During the Othonian period (1833-1862) large scale demolition of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine buildings took place in the new capital. These actions were an attempt to eradicate the physical evidence of an “inferior” past, which interfered with the efforts of the decision makers to establish an unbroken continuity between classical antiquity and the re-born state.

The government officials of the 1830s and 1840s were all proponents of a purist classical perspective. Their goal was to enhance the classical buildings by freeing them from additions of later and ‘lesser’ eras. The ‘purification’ of Athens was carried out by archaeologists who shared these views and felt little sympathy for the material remains of the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine eras. Thus, churches, mosques and other structures were demolished on the Athenian Acropolis and in the lower town. Some churches were destroyed because they stood near ancient monuments. Others were viewed as obstacles in the opening of new roads and the beautification of the capital. According to one estimate, approximately seventy-five churches met that fate; they were noted on maps of the early 1830s but disappeared in the next few decades. The ‘cleansing’ of the Acropolis is well documented, the destruction of churches in the lower town less so. Here, I will document several examples through plans and drawings of European visitors as well as archival research.

Another goal of this paper is to examine the relation of the discipline of archaeology to evolving national ideals. The initial hostility towards Byzantium shared by the educated elite gradually waned. In the 1850s the work of an influential historian, Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, led to the inclusion of the Byzantine past into the national narrative. In turn, Byzantium’s new role influenced the direction of Greek archaeology, which gradually began to lose its exclusive classical emphasis. Still, the purist classical ideals prevalent in the Othonian period have left their indelible mark; they guided the physical reorganization of the archaeological and urban landscape of Athens in the course of the 19th century.

Ancient Corinth from the Ottoman Empire to the Archaeologists

Amelia R. Brown (American School of Classical Studies at Athens)

Most modern visitors to Ancient Corinth come to see the ruins, the fenced-off ancient city at the center of a town whose houses, shops and churches were largely built since the 1950s. Only a few roadside shrines and now-crumbling structures still hint at the 19th-century town, a far-different Corinth which once occupied the same basic landscape. The written accounts of Corinthians, European travelers and American archaeologists add depth and color to these physical traces, as do archival photographs and the archaeological excavation of 19th-century remains recently undertaken by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. All this evidence is worth studying for several reasons. First, few if any towns in the Peloponnese boast such rich sources for the 19th century, the era in which Greece emerged as a nation-state, began industrial development and became a mass-market European tourist destination. At Corinth, these external shifts meant the destruction or abandonment of the urban and social fabric of the Ottoman town, the founding of a “modern” city on the coast, and a revolution in agriculture on the plain in between the two. The Grand Tour, Greek nationalism and the growth of classical archaeology also spurred interest in the traces of antiquity, once completely integrated into the Ottoman urban fabric. This interest culminated in the establishment of the large-scale excavations which continue to this day, but which have only sporadically taken account of the town which continues to thrive around them. Though these excavations initially sought only “Ancient” Corinth, today their archives and recent finds alike form a unique testament to the dramatic changes in and since the 19th-century. In this paper, I integrate this disparate source material to reconstruct the cityscape of 19th-century Corinth, both to better understand Corinthian and Peloponnesian history in that era, and to tease out what kinds of continuities do, in fact, exist in every city ever established on the shores of the Corinthian Isthmus.

Between Sea and Mountain: The Archaeology of a 20th-Century “Small World” in he Upland Basins of the Southeastern Korinthia

William R. Caraher (University of North Dakota)

David K. Pettegrew (Messiah College)

Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia)

Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory (Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia)

Between the villages of Sophiko and Korphos in the southeastern Korinthia are a number of geographically well-defined and fertile upland basins or poljes, each one accompanied into modern times by a cluster of farmsteads and used for agriculture and pastoral activities. The heavily forested slopes adjacent to these basins were systematically exploited for resin production, a flourishing industry in the wider region especially after World War II, which is now in serious decline. Although physically isolated from major urban centers, these microecologies played a vital role in the subsistence of its local population, which originated primarily in the nearby mountainous village of Sophiko. Placing these isolated, yet deeply interconnected places into their regional context provides another key case-study for the contingent character of the Greek countryside in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Between 2001 and 2009, the authors investigated these basins, with a primary focus on the largest, known locally as Lakka Skoutara, through two archaeological projects: the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey (2001-2003) and the Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project (2008-09). The former studied Lakka Skoutara as part of its emphasis on the archaeology of the modern period (19th-20th centuries), while the latter conducted archaeological investigations in several of these basins as part of a larger regional survey of the Saronic coastline.

Typical of the other basins, Lakka Skoutara presents a remarkably robust assemblage of material including domestic and religious architecture, agricultural installations, and ceramics scatters. This material reflects the dynamism of changing land use patterns in the Greek rural landscape as well as the formation processes and life cycles of use, reuse, and abandonment connected to domestic residence. By combining archaeological survey with oral information obtained from local residents, we were able to reconstruct part of the landscape history of this small, low-density rural settlement and its relationship to the wider world. This micro-level analysis of the site complements the broader perspectives offered by regional level data collection, oral history, and comparative studies from elsewhere in Greece. Lakka Skoutara and its neighboring poljes offer both snap shots of historical processes affecting the countryside over the last two centuries as well as the dynamic archaeological environments of semi-abandoned settlements recorded over the much narrower horizon of a decade of field work.

The Sacred Grip: Landscape, Art and Architecture in Mount Menoikeion (19th-20th Centuries)

Nikolas Bakirtzis (The Cyprus Institute)

Kostis Kourelis (Connecticut College)

Matthew Milliner (Princeton University)

Mount Menoikeion near Serres preserves a rich tradition shaped around the 13th-century monastery of Saint John Prodromos. The monastery evolved into one of the major monastic centers, surviving through volatile chapters of Balkan history. It is a spectacular monument of Byzantine art and architecture surrounded by an equally spectacular natural environment. In 1986, the deteriorating architectural shell was taken over by a female community of nuns whose spiritual guide, the Athonite monk Elder Ephraim, resides in Arizona. Although reviving older Orthodox traditions, Prodromos presents intersections between Byzantine and modern realities, between monastic life and local communities, ecclesiastical authorities, productive resources and the landscape. The Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University established an annual field seminar to investigate the site’s complexities as exemplary of the Modern Greek condition. Since 2005, the Mount Menoikeion Workshop has brought together a diverse group of scholars and students from anthropology, archaeology, history, classical studies, religious studies and art history. Our paper concentrates on the archaeology of 19th- and 20th-century life, represented in the cultural landscape, the architecture and the artistic treasures of Mount Menoikeion.

Landscapes are the product of ecological and human processes. What to the romantic eye seems idyllic and “natural” is, in fact, the product of continuous inhabitation and exploitation. In order to read the chronological development of the monastic landscape, we have mapped all evidence of cultural activity--caves, chapels, roads, paths, fields, orchards, farm buildings, sheep pens, trash heaps, industrial installations, water channels, memorials, inscriptions, markers and quarries. The early modern landscape reveals an inherent tension between the ideal of monastic wilderness and its aggressive human exploitation. Architecturally, Mount Menoikeion contains an intricate complex of buildings emanating from the Katholikon. Additions, towers and chapels tell a story not only of Byzantine tradition, but of modern Orthodox responses to more recent challenges, including Ottoman patronage, the ravages of the Balkan Wars and the effects of World War II, which in Menoikeion took the form of a Bulgarian occupation. Of special interest are the monastery’s 19th- and 20th-century art. Byzantine art historians have traditionally ignored this period as inferior and entirely derivative. The artistic culture of Prodromos demonstrates not only a flexible multilingual visual language but also deeper insights into the Orthodox community’s negotiation on multiple fronts, from its benevolent Ottoman patrons, to its western European markets and to an independent Greek nation-state further south.

The Body of the Land and the Land as Body in Greece and Cyprus

Nassos Papalexandrou (The University of Texas at Austin)

This paper explores conceptualizations of the land as body in the Hellenic Mediterranean. The evidence for the culturally ingrained tendency of thinking the landscape in terms of somatic metaphors is variegated and richly documented from antiquity to today. It may be attributed to a cultural poetics that enabled the extravagant vision of turning Mt. Athos into a colossal image of Alexander the Great or the perennial association of landscape features with important figures of myth and legend. Somatic metaphors also are deeply embedded in everyday vocabulary as toponymical or substantive terms (e.g. Greek “rachi,” “ophrys,” “neromana” etc.). This phenomenon may derive from the perennial need of humans to create intimate bonds between themselves and their (home)lands. The projection of human categories to the surrounding inanimate world may also register a relationship of mutual respect and interdependence—values, that is, currently in crisis in an increasingly urbanized world.

However this may be, this peculiar connectedness to the land is a universal cultural phenomenon. In this paper I propose that its Hellenic inflection should be studied as such. A good case for this study is the island of Cyprus, the geomorphology of which is rich in toponyms and oral traditions. This is especially evident in the case of Mt. Pentadaktylos (or Keryneia Mountains, in the occupied territory of northern Cyprus), a special geomorphologic feature of which still embodies the memory of the epic hero Digenis Akritas—a gigantic somatic “relic” of a heroic age in the Greek history of the island. The somatic nature of this feature may have motivated a recent Turkish-Cypriot monument that takes the form of a gigantic flag on the north slope of the mountain. This gigantic sign, I argue, “brands” the land/body of Pentadaktylos as an inalienable possession even as it cries out, in image and text, an altogether new but ambivalent identity. This “branding” of the landscape is literal and metaphorical. It derives its referential capacity from the actual branding of possessions, like cattle or enslaved human beings in the past.

Nassos Papalexandrou had to withdrew his submission because of a timing conflicting, but I include the abstract because it's a fascinating paper.

The Intimacy of Measurement

Much discussion has developed in the last few years on the epistemological nature of archaeology. Developments in stratigraphic rigor (Wheeler, etc. 1920s), New Archaeology (Clark, etc. 1960s), surface surveys (Minnesota Messenia Expedition, etc. 1970s) have bumped the discipline a step further away from traditional Humanism into the realms of science--both natural and social. Scientific measurement, as the foundation of archaeological knowledge, has placed archaeology under the radar of post-colonial theory, see Bruce Trigger, "Alternative Archaeologists: Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist, Man (1984), pp. 355-370. Yannis Hamilakis has argued that we need to move beyond Bruce Trigger's tripartite classification, see ch. 3, The Nation and Its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology and National Imagination in Greece (Oxford, 2007), pp. 57-123; "Decolonizing Greek Archaeology: Indigenous Archaeologies, Modernist Archaeology and the Post-Colonial Critique," in A Singular Antiquity: Archaeology and Hellenic Idenity in Twentieth-Century Greece, ed. D. Damaskos and D. Plantzos (Athens, 2008), pp. 273-286. For Hamilakis, European (and American) archaeology brought a homogeneous and totalizing archaeology to Greece, whose positivism displaced alternative, less rationalistic relationships to the past. My friend Bill Caraher, has explored the repercussions of such indigenous and subjective relationships in his explorations of dream archaeology.

I would like to explore a different tactic here, to illustrate some fissures in the positivist paradigm in as far as the scientific method of measuring is concerned. Despite the dominant project of an enlightened archaeology (built on rational proof, the scientific method, and documentation), one may note a gray zone of subjectivity. I have become particularly interested in those gray zones while studying the methods of archaoelogical survey. I am interested, for example, in personalities like Georg von Peshcke, who was project architect for the Corinth excavations in the 1930s but also a member of the artistic avant-garde. Looking through the testimonials available in archaeological notebooks, diaries and field drawings, one sees a fuller picture of scientific documentation. Specifically, one sees great latitudes in the human processes of measurement. The published state-plan, stratigraphic section, profile drawing or perspectival rendering are undeniably the "truthful" objective of these practitioners. Surrounding the rational document (which serves as faithful proxy to the artifact) are subjective methods.

On an earlier posting, I have discussed the practice of producing silhouette portraits, an artistic pass time in the excavations in Corinth, see 1930s Facebook. These shadow drawings survive in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and, we now know, were produced by Peschke in the 1930s. Such drawings were on the one hand objective (a true outline of a person's face) but also a source of entertainment in their production. Peschke, the artist, caressed the profile of his colleagues by tracing their shadows. More recently, artist Kara Walker has given a critical edge to this 18th-century tradition of silhouettes (see Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, Whitney Museum, Oct. 11, 2007-Feb. 3, 2008)

The physical and subjectively emotive process of documentation was not limited to the archaeologists' leisure activities. Bert Hodge Hill's explorations of Peirene Spring in Corinth provides an excellent example. This is the subject of Betsey Robinson's dissertation (and book manuscript). I thank Betsey for the fascinating discussions of her project. The archaeological exploration of the springs involved stripping down to bathing suits and descending into the cavernous darkness of the water channels. Betsey has read all the testimonials carefully and has noted how the chief archaeologists relished in the dirty, muddy procedure. Tackling homoeroticism from a different point of view, Robert Pounder is studying the peculiar co-habitation of Hill, Blegen and their wives. Hill's and Blegen's muddy descends into the crevices of Corinth fit nicely into Julia Kristeva's notion of the Abject that Michael Shanks has analyzed from an archaeological perspective.

With Betsey Robinson and Bob Pounder in mind, I recently revisited Hill's publication, Corinth I.VI: The Springs: Peirene, Sacred Spring, Glauke (Princeton, 1964). Although published in 1964, the manuscript had been completed in the 1930s. The following passage from Hill's forward places archaeological measurement into the realm of subjective corporeality, pleasure, amusement and heroism.

"Amusing incidents were not lacking in the clearing of Peirene. One ingenious member of the staff, who, partially immersed in water, was obliged to crawl on his stomach over the slimy mud in an exceptionally low stretch of a tunnel, invented a new unit of measurement. Finding it virtually impossible to use a tape or even a meter stick in his awkward position, he advanced by heaving himself forward in short convulsions, which he counted and recorded as 'belly paces,' sometimes translated into 'knee paces' in polite circles." (p. vi)

Hill then proceeds to enumerate "some of the unsung heroes who participated effectively in these subterranean researches," and concludes with the achievement of two women. "Report has it that Mrs. Agnes Stillwell and Miss Lucy Shoe on at least one occasion also penetrated to the far ends of the tunnels." (p. vi)

It is difficult not to see both the humor and the intended sexualization of the investigation and measurement of the earth's bowls. By taking the archaeological document at a positivist face-value, the post-colonialist scholar misses the nuances of actual documentation. A study of surveying methods, their instruments, social practices and habits places them into a different corporeal context. When the body itself becomes a surveying instrument, the zones between subjective and objective experience are difficult to keep separated. All of us that are involved with surveying full appreciate the difference between applied and pure science.

My second example of measurement as a sociological process comes from a century earlier, from Sir William Gell 1804 trip to the Peloponnese, one of the earliest documentation campaigns in Greece. While surveying Tragoge (near Ancient Phigaleia), Gell's surveying instruments were imbued with supernatural power. I quote the passage in full from Gell's, Narrative of a Journey to the Morea (London, 1823), pp. 107-108.

"Having finished my sketch, observing that it was very near mid-day, while the air was so still as not in any way to ruffle the surface of the water, which by chance lay before me, collected in a little cavity of the rock, I took the opportunity of ascertaining the latitude, and setting a common watch by a double altitude of the sun. The sight of the brass case of the small pocket sextant, which, with other necessary instruments, I always carried about me, seemed to produce an uncommon sensation among the people, five or six of whom came nearer, and, from a louder whisper than usual, I collected that they had taken the case for a snuff-box of gold, and did not scruple to express the wish to possess it. As they did not appear to be armed, I continued and concluded my observations; by recollecting that it was not impossible they might, on some other occasion, return in greater numbers, and find us ill or worse prepared for resistance, I called to the savage who stood nearest, and, setting the instrument on purpose, shewed him through it the house of the aga of Tragoge, seemingly placed among the ruins of the citadel of Paulitza. The man was so alarmed, that it was with difficulty I prevented my sextant from falling out of his hands, and persuaded him to remain while I took out two of the glasses of a little telescope, the increasing length of which filled him with dismay, and placing it on a rock, for it was impossible to prevail upon him to touch it, shewed him through it the inverted image of an old woman, who was washing before her door at Lower Tragoge; the first glimpse was sufficient, and he fled to his companions, crying out that the Franks were devils, and that poor Kokōna Anna was dead. We had some difficulty in persuading them that we had only set the old lady on her head by way of joke; that we had taken so much care not to hurt her, that she was unconscious of the fact; in proof of which they needed only to observe that she was continuing her occupation. We added, by way of precaution, that we never hurt any one who did not come with evil intentions; and they retired, tolerably satisfied, behind the ruins of the chapel, either thinking the devil had no power there, or for fear of being set on their heads if they remained in sight."

First Out: Late Levels at Early Sites

The Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology in Greece Interest Group (IG) of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was formed in 2005 with the purpose of fostering collaboration, organizing panels and advocating for post-classical archaeology. The IG has organized sessions at the AIA, “The Abandoned Countryside: (Re)Settlement in the Archaeological Narrative of the Post-Classical Mediterranean” (San Diego, 2007), and “The Archaeology of Xenitia: Greek Immigration and Material Culture (Chicago, 2008). The former is under review as a special issue of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology and the latter has just come out in The New Griffon 10 (2008). We have also organized a session on “Cyprus: Archaeology, Architecture and History” at the Byzantine Studies Conference (Toronto, 2007) and a session on “City, Village, Monastery: The Archaeology of Modern Greek Landscapes” for the Modern Greek Studies Association (Vancouver, 2009, under review). We are delighted that we can continue the tradition of organizing colloquia with special attention in publication and availability to the scholarly public.

Yesterday, March 16, 2009, was the deadline for submissions for the 2010 AIA Annual Meetings in Anaheim, Ca. Sharon Gerstel and I have put together a panel idea dealing with new Post-Classical research on old Classical sites. We submitted the panel yesterday and must now wait for six months to hear if it was accepted. It is interesting to note that an additional ten panels have been submitted: The Circus in Roman Culture, Empire and the Everyday, Where no God Has Gone Before: Greek Deities in the North, Moving Marble, Bricks, and Mortar: Supplying Roman Buildings, Interactions with the Ancient Landscape, From Pots to People: Approaches to the Study of Ceramics, A Body Corporate and Politic: The Mission of the AIA, Digital Research and Development in Collaborative Work, Subculture in Roman Social Life, the Art of Art History in the Bronze Age Near East. It will be interesting to see how the academic economy will affect the annual meetings. The choice of Anaheim seems to have also angered some people, but I hope this does not affect attendance.

FIRST OUT: LATE LEVELS AT EARLY SITES

Colloquium Session Proposal, 2010 Annual Meeting, Archaeological Institute of America, Anaheim, CA.

Sharon E. J. Gerstel (University of California, Los Angeles)

Kostis Kourelis (Connecticut College)

COLLOQUIUM OVERVIEW STATEMENT

The archaeology of the Classical world sprung out of the humanist tradition that bestowed great privilege to the texts of Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, or Plato. Sites made famous by great texts received early and continuous archaeological focus during the 19th and early 20th centuries. While the development of a scientific archaeological discipline benefited our understanding of the ancient world, it brought about a calamitous side effect, the veritable destruction of “lower” material culture from “higher” stratigraphic levels. Late Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Medieval, Ottoman, and Early Modern phases were irretrievably destroyed by the classicist’s spade. Archaeological ethics in the 1920s and diachronic methodologies in the 1960s, however, brought about a slow but concerted critique against this collateral damage. Our panel hopes to highlight the positive contributions that have emerged in the last few years in documenting the late periods of Classical sites. We focus on the excavations of Pylos, Troy, the Athenian Agora, Chersonesos, Corinth, and surface surveys in Boeotia and the Corinthia. Each case study reveals a unique confrontation between old traditions of scholarship and new methodologies. The papers raise questions about shifting approaches to later levels, ones that demand an understanding of new sets of texts, building traditions, and settlement patterns. Together with a change in modern approaches to the understanding of stratigraphy and artifact density is the investigation of how and why later cultures utilized earlier sites and whether layered deposits represent the intentional and continuous presence or the expeditious rebuilding on older levels. These questions become particularly acute when ancient sites of central importance find themselves on the periphery of later empires.

PAPERS

1. Jack L. Davis (University of Cincinnati and American School of Classical Studies at Athens) and Sharon R. Stocker (University of Cincinnati and American School of Classical Studies at Athens), Prioritizing the Past: A Byzantine Deposit from the Palace of Nestor at Englianos

2. Kathleen M. Quinn (Northern Kentucky University), Drowned in the Depths of Obscurity: How Archaeology both Marginalized and Revitalized Our Understanding of Late Byzantine Troy

3. Anne McCabe (Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents), A Middle Byzantine Neighborhood in Athens: Recent Excavations in the Agora

4. Adam Rabinowitz (University of Texas at Austin) and Larissa Sedikova (National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos), First but not Out: The Byzantine Levels at Chersonesos in Historical and Archaeological Context

5. William R. Caraher (University of North Dakota) and Timothy E. Gregory (Ohio State University), New Views on Old Data: Reinterpreting Intensive Survey Results After 30 Years

6. Guy D. R. Sanders (American School of Classical Studies at Athens), Late Ottoman and Early Modern Levels from New Excavations in Ancient Corinth

ABSTRACTS

Prioritizing the Past: A Byzantine Deposit from the Palace of Nestor at Englianos

Jack L. Davis, University of Cincinnati and American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Sharon R. Stocker, University of Cincinnati and American School of Classical Studies at Athens

In 1958 and 1959, in the area of the northeast gate in the Early Mycenaean fortifications surrounding the citadel of the Palace of Nestor, a deposit of pottery, glass, and tile of the 11th or early 12th century C.E. was found associated with a floor crudely paved with stones and fragments of broken tiles laid flat. The remains are more likely to belong to a single collapsed structure than a village. Because of the prehistoric focus of the publication plan for the Palace of Nestor excavations, the finds were published briefly though not extensively discussed. In the archives, however, they are recorded according to the same standards applied to Bronze Age levels of the site. Carl W. Blegen had a deep interest in medieval Greek archaeology and history. The artifacts, however limited in number and restricted in spatial distribution, thus offer a detailed glimpse at an historical period poorly known in western Messenia, although churches of that date are known elsewhere in the province and its larger cities are mentioned in ecclesiastical literature. Surface surveys in the Peloponnesos point to the Middle Byzantine period as a time of remarkable expansion of settlement in the countryside. Work of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project suggests, however, that the Englianos area may have been thinly settled in the 11th and 12th century, as it certainly was in early modern times, prior to the Greek Revolution of 1821.

Drowned in the Depths of Obscurity: How Archaeology both Marginalized and Revitalized Our Understanding of Late Byzantine Troy

Kathleen M. Quinn, Northern Kentucky University

This paper examines the treatment of Byzantine material culture excavated at the historic site of Troy in northwestern Turkey. Consideration is given to how the methodologies and research agendas employed by three generations of archaeologists have impacted the understanding of the area’s history during the post-classical period. The paper begins with a brief overview of the contributions of Heinrich Schliemann and Wilhelm Dörpfeld to our knowledge of Byzantine history at Troy, but the bulk of the previously unpublished evidence for this paper comes from the excavations of the University of Cincinnati archaeologists led by Carl W. Blegen. In keeping with the intellectual climate of the age, the research agendas of both of these early teams of archaeologists marginalized the study of Byzantine remains and often left little in the way of contextualized or detailed stratified deposits. In the case of the Blegen excavations, the Byzantine material survives today as tantalizing tidbits in old manuscripts, handwritten field journals, and card files of artifact and photographic inventories. When coupled with the finds from the more recent excavations of the Troia Archaeological Project (1988-present), however, this so-called “first out” material tells the tale of a small, yet prosperous Late Byzantine settlement. Now known as Troy X, this Byzantine “level” of the famous Bronze Age citadel consists of small houses and agricultural buildings, cemeteries, and a qanat-style water supply system dating to the 13th and 14th centuries C.E.

A Middle Byzantine Neighborhood in Athens: Recent Excavations in the Agora

Anne McCabe, Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford

Recent seasons of excavation in the Athenian Agora have brought to light the remains of Byzantine houses on the streets leading north from the Panathenaic Way. The neighborhood lay outside the Late Antique city walls and appears to have been developed in the 10th century C.E.; sections of it have been excavated by the ASCSA since the 1930s. These houses provide unspectacular but welcome evidence for secular architecture of the Middle Byzantine period, as well as an architectural context for the many medieval churches which still stand in the city. The houses are provided with wells and with numerous storage vessels whose mouths were at floor level. Also present are beehive-shaped bothroi for the disposal of waste. The only coins found are bronze folleis. Apart from small amounts of imported white ware, pottery excavated consists of brown-glazed red ware, including chafing dishes, columnar lamps, plates, and juglets. Unglazed wares include cooking pots, water jugs, and basins, often with incised decoration. Large quantities of slag and broken murex shell attest to industrial activity nearby. Human remains are also present in the form of neonate burials, probably premature infants, within the area of the houses. The orientation of the houses, as well as much of their building material, is derived from the principal monument of the area, a large Classical building that may be identified as the Stoa Poikile. Late Antique walls between the columns of the stoa show that the interior of the building was divided into smaller areas, perhaps for commercial purposes.

First but not Out: The Byzantine Levels at Chersonesos in Historical and Archaeological Context

Adam Rabinowitz, University of Texas at Austin

Larissa Sedikova, National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos, Ukraine

Byzantine archaeologists working at major Classical sites in the Mediterranean often struggle to reconstruct the record of post-antique remains removed as “overburden” by excavators eager to reach earlier levels. In many cases, the late levels were damaged even before excavation: closest to the surface, they were first to be removed or mined for building material during modern construction. The city of Chersonesos (Byzantine Cherson), located at the southwest tip of Crimea, offers a stark contrast to the Mediterranean situation. Not only did the city largely escape modern construction and spoliation, but -- despite its Greek and Roman remains -- the archaeological work that has been conducted there since 1827 has focused primarily on its Byzantine phases. The city suffered several violent destructions in the 13th and 14th centuries C.E., and as a result a rich record of daily life has been preserved. Furthermore, for visitors and many excavators, the central historical narrative of the site involves the arrival of Orthodox Christianity among the Kyivan Rus’, and that, together with the excellent preservation of the late structures, leaves the Byzantine remains as the dominant element in the presentation of the site. The importance of Chersonesos for Byzantine archaeology, however, has been obscured by both ancient and modern historical factors. This paper discusses the history of excavation at Chersonesos, the site’s relevance to Byzantine archaeology in the Mediterranean, and the results of recent multidisciplinary investigations of a residential block occupied from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 13th century C.E.

New Views on Old Data: Reinterpreting Intensive Survey Results after 30 Years

William R. Caraher, University of North Dakota

Timothy E. Gregory, Ohio State University

At the same time that scholars have focused new energies on the recovery of post-Classical periods in excavation, intensive pedestrian surveys across Greece have expanded our understanding of the Greek countryside for the same periods. Over the past 25 years, the publications of numerous intensive survey projects have, in particular, redefined our understanding of a prosperous Late Roman East and revealed post-Classical settlement structures. With these successes in mind, this paper will reexamine the results from several small-scale survey projects conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s in Boeotia and the Corinthia. This paper argues from a series of case studies that early survey projects captured data with yet unrealized significance in the context of recent excavation and survey work. The projects examined in this paper coincided with survey projects like the Cambridge Boeotia Project and the Argolid Exploration Project, but were published earlier and in a less comprehensive way. Returning to the material and quantitative data generated by these projects, in much the same way that archaeologists returned to material produced at major excavations like Athens, Corinth and Troy, represents the coming of age of intensive survey and contributes to more reflexive approaches to survey material and data in general. Re-examining the data collected and these projects’ underlying assumptions increases the transparency of these older efforts, enriches the pool of material available for the comparative study of the Greek countryside, and reclaims fragments of landscapes lost to development, taphonomic influences, and changes in technique, technology, and method.

Late Ottoman and Early Modern Levels from New Excavations in Ancient Corinth

Guy D. R. Sanders, American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Although topsoil is the primary medium of archaeological surveyor, excavators seldom pay it much attention probably because Late Antique, Medieval and post-Medieval are anathema to Classical archaeologists. Topsoil often contains the only vestiges of a site’s final phases. At Corinth these belong to the decades before the earthquake of 1858 that resulted in the village’s population moving to a new site next to the sea on the Isthmus. In the Panayia Field at Corinth, topsoil contained the plowed over foundations of eight houses known, from a contemporary map of the village, to have existed ca. 1830 in a canton called Kalamatamahalla and, later, Arapomahalla. The undisturbed layer beneath preserved the lower foundations of the houses and the bottoms of pits containing household occupational debris representing the decades between about 1790 and 1850. Open area excavation in the Panayia Field, with exhaustive recovery strategies, resulted in an almost complete record of an archaeological phase of Corinth known only from travelers’ accounts and the illustrations therein contained. The houses were simple one, two and three roomed, single storey, tile roofed dwellings with white clay floors and wall plaster. None had wells and only two had outside ovens for baking. The household debris included wine bottles, low denomination Ottoman coins, and imported ceramics from China, Britain, France, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. Seriation of the contexts show how patterns of imports changed after the War of Independence. This represents the first and only systematic excavation of this period in the Aegean region